Stormont to bail out Translink as it faces big losses
THE Executive will provide Translink with more money in response to Covid-19 after its chief executive Chris Conway said it faced a £100m shortfall.
The funding is on top of £20m given to help clear the company’s deficit prior to the coronavirus emergency.
It came as a national official for trade union Unite said he hoped deaths from Covid-19 among bus drivers in Britain would not be repeated in Northern Ireland.
Davy Thompson, also of Unite, said Translink had taken wide-ranging measures to protect drivers since the beginning of the pandemic.
Revenues have slumped at the company after passenger numbers were hit in the lockdown.
Translink said: “We have seen a reduction in passenger numbers of over 90%, with services operating at 10-15% of what we would normally see.”
But it added: “Public transport will play a vital role as we work to rebuild and recover the local Northern Ireland economy.”
Translink is continuing to run buses on underused routes, as it is obliged to under the terms of its subsidy from government.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said: “The Executive has agreed to provide Translink with additional support in response to Covid-19 on top of the £20m provided as part of Budget 2020-21.”
And the business has been asked by Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon to look into furloughing workers.
But last night a department spokeswoman told the Belfast Telegraph that an assessment of the potential of furloughing “would not deliver a game-changing financial solution for the organisation”, and that employees would be needed when demand eventually picked up again.
She added: “Minister Mallon is expecting that money to be made available to her department soon, allowing the minister to allocate vital funding and ensuring a sustainable service as we look to support the public throughout the Covid recovery period.”
Meanwhile, a union representative in England has said he hopes that the deaths of bus drivers in service in Britain is not repeated on this side of the Irish Sea.
Unite national officer Bobby Morton said: “I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen in Translink. Last time I checked the figures, we had 37 fatalities in England, and that’s 37 too many.
“We’re urging operators to hold risk assessments and upgrade the cleanliness of buses where possible.
“But no matter what we do, the germ always seems to find a way through.”
Translink said: “Thankfully, we have had no Covid-related deaths.
“Safety of our colleagues and passengers continues to be our top priority.”
Mr Thompson explained that Metro buses are already fitted with Perspex screens, while drivers are also equipped with visors, masks, hand sanitiser, gloves and wipes to take with them.
But he added: “There’s always a nervousness about these things that we’ll never be 100% safe; the reality is that we have accidents every day.
“I think we have to worry about everybody going back to the workplace, no matter what the workplace is.
“Our bus drivers have shown tremendous resilience, but you can’t give a 100% guarantee.”
TRANSLINK has faced many problems in recent years — and maintaining social distancing on its buses and trains at peak times when passenger demand increases will be yet another.
Senior economist Dr Esmond Birnie of the Ulster University business school said the company has faced a series of setbacks, including falling rates of subsidy, and years of austerity in which it has been expected to run down its cash reserves.
That’s led to several crisis points over the last few years but now Covid-19 has ushered in a new set of problems beyond the immediate hit to passenger numbers as people stay at home and avoid unnecessary journeys.
But in the future, how do you solve a problem like social distancing on buses and trains? Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has said that buses would need to operate at just 15% capacity if social distancing is to be maintained.
And school buses are likely to be the worst pinch-point for Translink when the kids go back in autumn. How to carefully manage hordes of jostling schoolkids may prove quite an exercise in crowd control. The Department of Education confirmed yesterday: “As part of the planning processes for the restart of schools, the provision of home to school transport is being considered by the Department and the Education Authority in partnership with other key stakeholders and in the context of social distancing guidelines.”
Translink has said it’s working with departments to provide appropriate school transport.
Last night the Department for Infrastructure confirmed it will receive funding to get it through the challenges of Covid-19.
In the last few months it’s been losing as much as 90% of its typical revenues from passenger fares as people stay at home. At normal times, Translink has a fleet of 1,400 buses and trains and runs 12,500 services every day. It’s been operating at a reduced timetable since the lockdown — but even the buses which are running have few passengers on them. That has led to the phenomenon of ‘ghost buses’ with no passengers, gliding past us while we are out for our daily exercise.
While Translink can reduce services, it cannot cut them due to the public service agreement which it must fulfil by running rural and less popular routes, in exchange for its subsidy.
One transport insider said: “Their structure is that they are contracted to fulfil a network obligation and contracted to cover services regardless of how many passengers are on them. If they were more commercial as an organisation they might be making decisions like cutting routes but it’s not really their decision. “They’re fulfilling that public service obligation role and that sets the beat. They have to maintain that unless the Department for Infrastructure would make some sort of pause by agreement.”
He said Translink would find it difficult to maintain social distancing at peak-times. All Translink buses — Goldliner, Ulsterbus and Metro buses — have only one door.